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A veteran Labour MP has warned of the damage being done to the party by
“feminisation”, which he says is making parliament boring and insular, and
leaving the left less ready to deal with “Tory hooligans”.

Austin Mitchell, who is standing down as MP for Great Grimsby at the election
after 38 years, has attacked Labour’s “preoccupation” with allwomen
shortlists, driven by Anna Yearley, Ed Miliband’s political secretary.

The only exceptions to this drive, he said, are “seats wanted for the scions
of our great dynasties — the Kinnocks, the Straws, the Benns, the Blairs”.